[social_warfare]There’s nothing better than a good app. They brighten our day, they make things easier, and they help us solve problems when the going gets tough. The good news is the world is full of excellent apps. Although most apps are worthy of your time, you naturally don’t want to fill your phone with apps you’re not even going to use. It’s important to plan your app use and only pick those that you find useful, entertaining or helpful.

To make it all just slightly easier for you, here are some of the top iPhone apps you need to have at your fingertips throughout the day. With these six apps, you are bound to make your day better.

The easiest way to ensure your day goes without a hitch is to make sure you’re using a proper calendar. When it comes to calendar apps, the iPhone has a huge selection of suitable options but Rolo is definitely the prettiest.

Your day will be made better with the use of animations and beautiful design. You can instantly see how your day divides into work and entertainment – perfect way to remind yourself to slow down or, indeed, get off your backside!

To-do lists are another great way to keep your day on track. However, you often don’t have time to write them, and a lot of to-do list apps tend to provide you with an annoying design that doesn’t inspire you to do more. Change this around with Nine.

The to-do list is visual; it uses photographs to create reminders of the things you need to be doing. You can attach tags to your photos and therefore, create clear action plans. Furthermore, you can even geotag your photos to ensure you remember where you remembered to do that particular action. It’s pretty, and it’ll make your day go by quicker.

Smartphones are not really for calling anymore, but instant messaging. While instant messaging apps come in all shapes and sizes, Whatsapp is definitely one of the most popular and the best for all sorts of uses. You can send photos, videos and even record voice messages on the platform if you can’t type. The app has a lovely range of emojis and GIFs for you to use.

Why do you need it to make your day better? Whatsapp will guarantee you get to talk to friends and family, as well as sort out any pesky problems in an instant. If you use the Wi-Fi option, you don’t need to spend a penny staying in touch with the outside world.

Do you love podcasts? There are many good podcasts to listen to but only so many hours in the day to do the listening. TuneIn Radio is an app to change this and with the help of the app, you can keep listening to your favorite podcasts more.

The app speeds up the speed of the shows. It starts slow and trains your brain to pick up the important information – you can cram in more episodes to your daily commute with this app. It’s the perfect way to help you listen more but without it taking time off your other things.

You can’t just think about productivity and work all day long. For the fun occasions, you’ll need some proper games on your phone. Churchill Solitaire is a great pick – it’s entertaining and challenging at the same time.

The app was developed based on a complicated version of the classic game, the British prime minister developed. Churchill is considered one of the great statesmen of all times, so you’ll boost your day a lot by having a go at this game.

Everybody is looking for a bit of love. But if you don’t quite like the traditional apps for dating, you might want to give Bumble a go. The app needs two people to swipe right in order to start a conversation. In addition to this, the woman has to be the one to initiate the conversation – therefore, you might find this app a bit more serious.

If you are bored with your old phone and want the latest iPhone that too without breaking the budget then unleash the use of coupon codes available at Frugaa. It’ll definitely make your day a better day when you realize you saved a big amount and are within budget. If you want to make your day more entertaining, productive and smooth, you want to download these six apps on your iPhone!

Unless you’ve been dwelling on some sort of desert island for the last few years, you surely can’t have failed to notice the rapid rise of the iPad. The tablet computer was little heard-of among the mainstream market until just a few years back, when Apple’s iPad made its first appearance. Since then, the device has gone on to shift tens of millions of units around the world – and its popularity shows few signs of flagging. However, if you’ve just picked up an iPad for the first time having had little experience with these tablets in the past, you might be wondering just what apps you can pick up for it. There are so many to choose from that it can be a bit confusing working out which ones are most likely to be best for you. Here are a few suggestions you may wish to bear in mind.

Using your iPad as an e-reader

What you may or may not be aware of is that your iPad can make a handy e-reader in addition to all the other functions it can perform. Of course, many people buy Amazon Kindle devices with this function in mind, but your iPad can also do a fine job in this regard. There are several apps to choose from if you’re looking for reading material for your iPad. Amazon itself offers a Kindle app for iPad, which enables users to gain access to around one million e-book titles, including its bestselling books. Apple has its own e-reader app, iBooks, and although it has a narrower selection than the Kindle app, it does allow users to pay using the iTunes system which many Apple fans have become well accustomed to. Alternatively, if you’re looking for something a little more lighthearted, then world-famous comics producers Marvel and DC both have their own iPad apps, so you can choose from their various titles.

Using your iPad to stay organised

One of the most important functions your iPad is likely to play is helping you to stay organised. This in itself is easier said than done, given how many of us are leading busy working lives. However, there are some useful iPad apps which can help you keep on top of things. The Evernote app enables users to access the various notes they’ve made, including voice notes and images, from the various devices they’ve stored them on. Skydrive, meanwhile, is a cloud system not unlike Sugarsync or Dropbox, allowing users to store and access Microsoft documents on the cloud.

Using your iPad for entertainment

Alternatively, there are a wide selection of apps which you can use to access your favourite TV programmes, films and various other clips. BBC’s iPlayer is perhaps the best known of these, and there’s a dedicated iPadiPlayer app. Users based outside of the UK can download the iPlayer Global Edition app for free, although there will be a monthly subscription fee. There’s also the SkyGo app, which Sky subscribers can use to watch more or less anything on Sky that their subscription package already covers. YouTube’s app is smoother and easier to use via iPad than the website, so it’s also well worth downloading.

Author Bio: Adrianna Short is a writer for thesnugg and specialises in great tips and tricks for any ios device

Even though the housing market in many areas is rebounding, the past few years have no doubt been rough for many real estate agents that have been faced with an ever-shrinking amount of demand and a seemingly endless supply of houses on the market. In such an environment, gaining the upper hand on the competition is vital if agents wish to remain relevant and active in the world of real estate. By having a series of tools at their disposal, select agents can prosper even in terrible economic climates. Below, we will be discussing four mobile apps that help real estate agents gain a better understanding of their territories and help maximize their earnings.

Open Home Pro

Perhaps the most popular app currently available for real estate agents, Open Home Pro gives its users access to managed plans for open house events, automatic lead generation services and the ability to create listing pages that can be used on a variety of different websites. Priced at $14.99 on the iTunes Store, Open Home Pro delivers in ways that listing agents expect: by offering a comprehensive tool for creating beautiful listings, you can truly showcase the benefits of any home. You will enjoy capturing photos with your iPhone and proceed to directly upload them to the Open Home Pro servers for later distribution, along with your landing page.

Open House Manager

Those who wish to centralize data collection and storage will love Open House Manager, an app available for all iOS devices. Using this collaborative application, you will be able to collect sign-in information at open houses directly, using an iPad or iDevice. This information is then stored via the cloud and can be accessed later for various tasks. You will be able to use the app to subsequently send detailed home reports to prospective buyers, shoot out follow-up emails and even create survey questions that can be used to collect more information from buyers. This app can be downloaded via the iTunes Store for $4.99.

HootSuite

Any real estate agent who is using technology to garner leads and earn extra income will understand how important social media management can be in developing a truly versatile real estate platform. HootSuite is a comprehensive social media manager that can post to any social platform, translate messages for various audiences and even be configured to send out specific updates at a later date and time. Perfect for those who do not have the time to flip back and forth between multiple apps; HootSuite combines all the aspects any real estate agent would engage in via social media into one easy to use system.

DocuSign

Document signing is a huge part of any real estate agent’s daily life, and any app that can make this process easier for both the agent and the buyer in question is a welcomed development. Enter DocuSign, a full-featured way for individuals to complete any signature or contractual agreements without having to be in person. While this may not suffice for every single document, you will be able to utilize this app (available for Android and iOS devices) to ease the burden on yourself and all buyers involved in any signing process.

Author Bio: This Guest post written by Don Mathew, he can be considered a technology fanatic. Interning as a real estate agent in Newmarket, he spends his nights collecting information about the latest technologies. With his gadget addiction and creative mind, he is keen on getting his obsession and his work close together.

With any new business, the first few months are crucial in ensuring stability and long-term solvency by making the most efficient and intelligent decisions. Seeing how half of all small businesses fail within their first five years, having a game plan and an organised approach will help reduce the chances that your small business will falter. This approach is particularly important when dealing with landscaping businesses, since most operate only during select seasons. Thanks to technology, improvements in efficiency and communication can be achieved in a variety of ways. Below, we will discuss four apps that are helping landscaping businesses stay ahead of the competition and interact with clients and fellow employees more effectively.

Landscape & Garden Calculators

Perhaps the only calculator you will ever need, the Landscape & Garden Calculators app – available on the Android Marketplace for $7.99 – includes more than forty unique calculators that help contractors calculate needed materials and costs for hardscapes, softscapes, lawns, gardens, walls and more. Building a pond in a client’s backyard? There’s a calculator for that, too. Virtually every aspect of home landscaping has a calculator within the app for quick assessments of each particular project. With an app like this, the amount of wasted materials for each job will be dramatically reduced (which is very important for any up-start landscaping business).

Square Register

Processing payments in the field used to be virtually impossible: you would instead provide an invoice and the client would either pay cash or mail you a check. These days, however, mobile payment processing is all the rage thanks to Square. Simply sign up for an account and Square will send you a free card reader (or two) that conveniently fit into the headphone jack of any iOS or Android device. Once the app is downloaded, you canprocess credit cards via swipe or manual entry – with no monthly fees. One flat rate (2.75% for swiped, 3.75% for manual entry) is applied to all payments, making Square a reliable and convenient way to handle debit/credit transactions.

TimeClock

Tracking billable hours and expenses is a huge part of managing a landscaping business, but it does not have to be as frustrating or time-consuming as some would have you believe. Enter TimeClock, an app available on the Android Marketplace which allows supervisors and managers the option of entering in each job in real time for future record-keeping and analysis. When you need to evaluate a list of recent jobs, exporting the results to an Excel file is quick and can be sent via e-mail. Even if you lose your phone or tablet, don’t worry: all of your data is synced with TimeClock’s online service and can be restored if need be. For just $6.99, TimeClock can help your landscaping business be organised and paper-free in regards to tracking billable hours and generating expense reports.

Evernote

Casual observations, brainstorming and other notes are common in the landscaping business, but being organised enough to keep all of these notes in one place rarely happens. With Evernote, employees will have access to a comprehensive audio and text-based note system that can be configured to allow sharing across mobile devices and desktop computers. Whether it’s a to-do list or a particular comment from a client, Evernote stores and syncs said information to the user’s account. Subsequently, any and all data can be shared via social media or email for quicker communication between employees. Available on the iTunes App Store, Evernote is a free application.

The author of this post Arnold Gregg, is a freelance app developer for smartphones and he lives in Scarborough. Apart from his interest in technology, he is also a landscaping enthusiast and has worked as a consultant for a few landscape design companies in Toronto.

Shaw Floors has released an innovative new iPhone app which they have called the Carpet Stain Remover. The app will provide you with some very clear and concise instructions on how to remove any stain from your rugs and carpets. There are plenty of instructions and procedures for many of the most common stains found around the home and all this information is right at your fingertips.

Not Sure What the Stain is?

The Carpet Stain Center app provides cleaning instructions for almost 1,000 common household stains. The app is said to be one of the most unique and helpful solutions for the flooring industry and will provide you with solutions in real-time. It makes no difference whether you spill coffee, red wine and even have a huge pasta sauce based disaster the app is well equipped to get you out of a tight spot.

It must be mentioned that many of the solutions provided are specifically aimed at households that have Shaw Floor carpets. These carpets are typically made from certain fibres and therefore the cleaning instructions may not be appropriate to use on any other types of materials. However, there are many brands and fibres that it can help you with.

The app features many brands of carpet that are said to be stain and soil resistant, such Anso nylon. However, even if you manage to get a nasty stain on a carpet such as this, Shaw Floors have their very own patented stain and soil treatments. They have a particular product called R2x, which is well-known to act as a repellent for any number of stains.

Availability

The app can be found in the Utilities category of iTunes and was specifically designed for iPhone and iPad. However, it is also now available on iPod touch and will require an operating system of iOS 4.3 or later. The latest update fixed a minor issue within the Stain Center.

You will also have access to the Shaw Floors website via the app which offers a wealth of information about anything flooring related. They feature many different types of carpets, tile and stone flooring, laminate, hardwood, area rugs and resilient flooring materials. They also offer a live chat feature via the website, which allows you to speak in more details with an agent.

You will also find many great articles about flooring, cleaning and stain removal. There are many tips and advice about floor care in general, such as things you can do beforehand to protect your floors from an imminent disaster. You also have the opportunity to find a dealer in your local area, thus allowing you to actually visit a store in person or even have an agent come and visit you at home.

Everything you will ever need to know about flooring and floor care can be found in this handy iPhone app and if ever you do suffer from a spillage, stain or other type of floor-related disaster you know that help is only an app away.

This post is authored by Lances Webber from http://torontorugcleaning.ca/. She is an avid blogger and uses her free time to indulge in her interests like writing and reading. One of her recent articles was about carpet cleaning services in Toronto.

When it comes to redesigning your bathroom you typically have to rely on a lot of other people. Typically, you would visit a bathroom showroom to speak with the salespeople to get a general idea of what’s available and at what price. You will often come across the bathroom of your dreams, but it can be extremely difficult to visualize how this bathroom would look in your own home. Luckily, there have been a number of apps created to get you around this problem.

Bathroom Styler

The Bathroom Styler app is brought to you by Ellis Furniture and is basically an interior design tool. It allows you to plan out your bathroom in its entirety whether you are looking for specific items or a fitted bathroom. You can create extremely realistic images of many different bathroom styles and designs with the app, and then save these and share them when necessary.

You have the ability to work on separate elements of your bathroom, including the design you would like for walls, doors, floors, cabinets, Worktops, etc. Once you have picked the ideal fixtures and fittings for your new bathroom these will be saved for you to use for future reference. You are not limited to the number of images you save and can create as many as you like. The app also has the facility to download bathroom design brochures, review the various product specifications and it can even help you to find an approved bathroom showroom in your local area. The app is totally free and is compatible with iPad.

Bathroom Design Ideas

The Bathroom Design Ideas app was created by Subatomic Devs. This app provides you with a fantastic collection of bathroom designs, some outstanding photographs and a short description of the designs. The app has a number of features, which include various bathroom photos and designs with full information about them. You can flick through a gallery slideshow and even use the photo editor to change or enhance the effects that you see.

The app allows you to bookmark photos and designs, save them to a library and share them as well should you want any input from friends and family. You even have the opportunity to compare a number of different bathroom designs side by side and this may give you a better idea of what is most suited to your home. The app also features a quiz game, which can actually help to give you more ideas of how you’d like your bathroom to look. The app is compatible with iPhone, iPod and iPad and costs US$3.99.

These apps take a lot of the guess work out of purchasing a new bathroom. Most people are typically nervous about what the finished product will look in their home because it’s impossible to visualize what it will look like. However, with these apps this is something you needn’t worry about again, as you have the ability to see exactly how your bathroom will look before any work has even taken place.

This post was contributed by Mark Whinehouse; he works for a well known provider of granite in New York. His hobbies include blogging and basketball.